Joey McQueen Lampasas High School head football coach and Athletic Director Joey McQueen will speak at a National Day of Prayer breakfast scheduled for 7 a.m. Thursday at Grace Fellowship.

The public is invited to the inter-denominational event. Donations will benefit the Lampasas County Ministerial Alliance.

McQueen’s topic, based primarily on the book of Ecclesiastes, is “Chasing the Wind.”

McQueen and his wife of 33 years, Vickie, are members of First United Methodist Church. McQueen serves on the church’s youth council. He and his wife, along with members of the Lampasas Independent School District coaching staff, sponsor the LHS Fellowship of Christian Athletes/Fellowship of Christian Students group.

The McQueens also are involved in Coaches Outreach, a ministry that offers Bible studies and summer marriage-building retreats for coaches throughout Texas. The couple — as well as members of each coaching staff McQueen has led — have attended Coaches Outreach summer retreats for the last six years.

Signed into law by President Harry Truman in 1952, the National Day of Prayer is an interdenominational, annual observance that emphasizes personal repentance and prayer, and encourages Christian unity. Participants are encouraged to pray for American churches and families, as well as for United States leaders in government, the military, media, business and education.

An estimated 2 million people attended about 30,000 prayer observances across the United States during last year’s National Day of Prayer.

Since 1789, U.S. presidents have issued 135 national calls to “prayer, humiliation, fasting and thanksgiving,” according to the National Day of Prayer’s Web site, nationaldayofprayer.org.

The foundation for this year’s national observance comes from the Old Testament book Nahum 1:7, which reads, “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.”